FESTIVAL SECTIONS
Brazilian Competitive Section
This exhibition showcases animations produced in Brazil. Generally productions from two years prior to the current edition of the festival.
They serve as a platform to highlight local talent and promote the national animation industry.
Works can encompass a variety of styles, techniques and genres. The films are received through the Filmfreeway platform and are selected by professional curators in the animation field.
During the festival, the technical jury analyzes these works and awards the following categories:
Best Film (official jury), Best Film (popular jury), Best direction, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Design, Best Musical Score, Best Animation Technique and Best Press Award.
A Tragédia da Lobo-Guará
Director Kimberly Palermo
Brazil (RJ) | 2025 | 18’02’’
Synopsis: After losing everything he had, a sentimental maned wolf wanders Brazil in search of a new home.
Areia
Director Gustavo Ribeiro, Ive Machado
Brazil (PR) | 2024 | 7’36’’
Synopsis: On a journey through a distant desert, we traverse our deepest desires and fears in search of an answer. However, life always has a surprise in store. You let yourself go when the chance appears?
Como Nasce um Rio
Director Luma Flôres
Brasil (BA) | 2025 | 8’33’’
Synopsis: A woman wakes up in a mountainous landscape, surrounded only by vegetation and a river. Driven by curiosity and a desire to explore the place, she embarks on a journey of discovery and immersion. Upon finding where she is, she also discovers herself.
Dente Siso
Director Luísa Bacelar
Brazil (MG) | 2025 | 5’25’’
Synopsis: A young woman tries to go on with her day, but something holds her back. She can’t even leave the bathroom.
Kabuki
Director Tiago Minamisawa
Brazil (SP) | 2025 | 12’47’’
Synopsis: Inspired by many real stories of genocide against transgender people, the film follows Kabuki’s journey in search of self-acceptance in a violent world.
Laguna Plena
Director Carlon Hardt, Rimon
Brazil (PR) | 2024 | 4’24’’
Synopsis: In a setting of natural abundance, a mystical figure, an embodiment of primordial femininity, encounters a wild horse and sets out with it on an ancestral journey of union with nature. An ode to purity, harmony with the wild, and the pursuit of unrestrained freedom, celebrating love in its most natural and raw form.
Mãe da Manhã
Director Clara Trevisan
Brazil (RS) | 2025 | 8’09’’
Synopsis: In the emptiness of the night, a hungry creature searches for food and perpetuates a daily cycle.
Medo de Cachorro
Director Italo Tapajós
Brazil (RN) | 2025 | 9’21’’
Synopsis: What are memories? Are they recollections of the past or fragmented ideas of who we are? A young man reflects on his childhood, pondering not only his fear of dogs, but the very nature of fear itself.
Medo Monstro
Director Andrew Gledson, Eduardo Padrão
Brazil (PE) | 2025 | 9’57’’
Synopsis: “MEDO MONSTRO” is a poetic and powerful short film that explores the imaginative world of a young girl, where a monster threatens to take over everything. With a magical and visually stunning narrative, the film reflects on empathy, resilience, and social awareness, showing how we face the real and imaginary fears that haunt our society.
Morto Não
Director Alex Reis
Brazil (SP) | 2025 | 14’56’’
Synopsis: The birth of a young Black couple’s first child brings happiness, but also anguish. The newborn’s father lives through and expresses his dilemmas about the arrival, the bond, and the departure of his beloved firstborn.
Safo
Director Rosana Urbes
Brazil (SP) | 2025 | 12’18’’
Synopsis: Safo is an animated short film inspired by the life and work of the poet from the island of Lesbos, who lived around 600 BC. Sappho’s poems gradually disappeared throughout history. About 200 fragments remain, recently found in the sands of the Egyptian desert. The clear bond with nature present in Sappho’s poetry inspires the film’s aesthetic and narrative structure.
Tsuru
Director Pedro Anias
Brazil (BA) | 2024 | 6’13’’
Synopsis: *TSURU* tells the story of a sleeping piece of paper that, after being awakened by the beating wings of a Tsuru (a Japanese origami crane), begins a challenging journey in search of transformation.
TV Entreaberta
Director Mateus Compart
Brazil (MG) | 2025 | 8’34’’
Synopsis: The film follows the story of a woman who is abducted into her own television. In this new plane of existence, she is tormented by a kind of American TV host who seems to control both reality and his new “guest,” moving through various television genres, such as talk shows.
Um corpo sem cavalo?
Director Lara Fuke
Brazil (RS) | 2025 | 8’31’’
Synopsis: In an attempt to find its identity, a riderless body moves through its absences and voids.
Umassuma – Lascas de Memória
Director Andrei Miralha, Guaracy Britto Junior
Brazil (PA) | 2025 | 7’35’’
Synopsis: A man has cultivated a unique relationship with trees since childhood. He draws them, gives them names, and treats them as friends. One is special: the samaúma tree “Umassuma.” When it is gone, he is overcome by grief, and with it, poetic memories emerge, revealing the deep connection between his life and the enormous centuries-old tree.
UPS!
Director Galvão Bertazzi, Luís Canau
Brazil (SC) | 2024 | 11’17’’
Synopsis: A boy lives surrounded by an oppressive cacophony of sounds within a dysfunctional family. A day at the beach may be the long-awaited opportunity for a break from that hellish existence.
International Competitive Show
In the international competitive exhibition, animations from around the world are displayed, representing the cultural and creative diversity of the art of global animation.
The works are selected based on criteria such as artistic quality, originality, technical innovation and narrative.
Just like the national competitive show, the international show can also be divided into several categories for awards, allowing different types of animation to be recognized and celebrated.
It also has prizes for:
Best Film (official jury), Best Film (popular jury), Best direction, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Design, Best Musical Score, Best Animation Technique and Best Press Award.
A Paper Coffee Cup Story
Director Igor Gusev
Russian Federation | 2025 | 3’47’’
Synopsis: This is a story about creative and sensitive people. Their feelings are hurt by unrequited love, misunderstandings, and loneliness, and they all end up in a metaphorical place (a hospital ward) where they meet, talk, and heal. The boy meets the girl he once fell in love with, the poet is finally understood and admired, and the girl is no longer alone. There is also a fourth character: a steaming silhouette who has no feelings and can only experience physical pain, as if he lives in a completely different world, devoid of spirituality.
Amarelo Banana
Director Alexandre Sousa
Portugal | 2025 | 12’
Synopsis: After another sleepless night, a man encounters a strange community living in his building and discovers the elaborate illusion they have created.
Balconada
Director Iva Tokmakchieva
Bulgary | 2025 | 8’06’’
Synopsis: A hot summer day draws several neighbors out onto their balconies. When a welcome rain awakens everyone from their lethargy, one of them finds a way to reconnect them with one another and with the present moment.
Experiences and learning. And parenting.
Director Malgorzata Rybak
Poland | 2025 | 4’40’’
Synopsis: An energetic child named “O” is very curious and always busy discovering the world around them. Despite all the obstacles, O manages to gather personal experiences and acquire new skills. Will they prove useful?
I AM FINE
Director Osi Wald
Israel | 2025 | 4’22’’
Synopsis: This four-minute film is a collection of animated diary entries created between 2022 and 2025, a period marked by protests against the government and the horrors of an ongoing war. Through repetitive sketches of familiar domestic situations and abstract dream imagery, I create fragile bubbles of sanity in a maddening world. Together, these fragments offer a deeply personal glimpse into what lies behind the simple response, “I’m fine.” The film is a personal project and was created without government support or funding.
Laughing and Crying
Director Che Tagyamon
Philippines | 2024 | 9’
Synopsis: *Laughing and Crying (Tumatawa, Umiiyak)* is an animated short film about a man’s memories of an afternoon spent with his grandfather. Together, they walk through their old neighborhood and the city with the task of collecting flowers for school. Along the way, they play to pass the time and endure the afternoon heat.
My home is your home
Director Joan Mayorga
Colombia | 2025 | 5’17’’
Synopsis: A new inhabitant threatens the home of Magdaleno and his son, Sinú. Its arrival brings changes that may forever destroy their way of life. Will they be able to find a way to coexist in the depths of the Magdalena River?
Once in a body
Director Luce Grosjean
Colombia | 2025 | 10’20’’
Synopsis: Two sisters confront their troubled relationship as one of them struggles against an inexplicable entity inhabiting her body, leading to revelations about the past they share.
Ovary-Acting
Director Ida Melum
United Kingdom | 2025 | 12’24’’
Synopsis: A woman in her thirties, exhausted and under pressure, is forced to decide whether she wants to become a mother after unexpectedly giving birth to her own reproductive organs during her sister’s baby shower.
Pillowzzz
Director Moshe (Animoshe) Benavram Akal
Israel | 2025 | 15’16’’
Synopsis: The film follows the story of Terry, a clumsy and violent troll, haunted by his past and in search of redemption for his soul.
Psychonauts
Director Niko Radas
Croatia | 2025 | 8’
Synopsis: After abandoning their human hosts, mental disorders take on anthropomorphic forms and begin searching for new refuges.
Sulaimani
Director Vinnie Ann Bose
France | 2025 | 20’
Synopsis: One night, Alia and Neena, two young Indian women, go out to dinner at Sulaimani, an Indian restaurant in Paris. The meal awakens sometimes suppressed emotions and “frees” memories that gradually reveal the reasons that led them to leave their country. Alia could no longer endure traditional Indian culture and lived in conflict with her family. Neena chose to leave in order to support her husband and children who remained in India. Although their reasons are different, both share the same nostalgia during this dinner, bringing them a little closer to home.
The Night Boots
Director Pierre-Luc Granjon
France | 2024 | 12’29’’
Synopsis: While their parents are hosting friends, a child leaves the house in the middle of the night and enters the woods wearing rubber boots. There, a strange, curious, and lonely animal leads them into the heart of the forest to meet the nocturnal creatures that live there and, in order not to be alone again, tries to delay the child’s departure as long as possible.
The Quinta’s Ghost
Director James A. Castillo
Spain | 2025 | 17’13’’
Synopsis: In 1819, an exhausted Francisco de Goya withdraws to “La Quinta del Sordo” to spend his final days away from public life and focused on his work. Unfortunately, in the deep solitude of that modest country house, the painter falls seriously ill. Closer to death than ever, Francisco de Goya is visited by the ghosts of his past. Tormented by these visitations and with his health rapidly deteriorating, Goya paints the Black Paintings on the walls of his home as a last resort to drive away the ghosts of his life, losing almost everything in the process, including his mental sanity and nearly his own life.
Uncovered
Director Max Vannienschoot
Canada | 2025 | 6’14’
Synopsis: Alyss runs naked, exposed to the environment and affected by the elements around her. Her exhausting journey becomes a pretext for reflecting on the search for personal authenticity.
Unlearning Motherhood
Director Juliana Erazo Gómez
Colombia/Netherlands | 2025 | 10’45’’
Synopsis: Unlearning Motherhood* is an animated documentary that tells moving and inspiring stories of women with unconventional experiences of motherhood, through the journey of a fictional character seeking answers about pregnancy.
Ziki
Director Roberta Palmieri, Olga Sargenti
Italy | 2025 | 12’33’’
Synopsis: Ziki is a Congolese boy who lives in a village with his mother. One day, while they are playing, Ziki discovers a mysterious tunnel winding beneath the kitchen floor. Curious, he decides to explore it, but slips and falls to the bottom of the tunnel. As he makes his way through it, he discovers a world built on exploitation and war in his homeland.
IBERO-AMERICAN FEATURE FILM COMPETITIVE SHOWCASE
Feature films invited by a specialized curator from Lanterna Mágica, to make up this exhibition, together with a debate and case study on the process of creation and/or production of the films.
Decorado
Director Alberto Vazquez
Spain | 2025 | 1h35’
Synopsis: Arnold is a middle-aged mouse trapped in an existential crisis. His marriage is falling apart, his life feels absurd, and he begins to suspect that everything around him is a huge sham. When his best friend dies under suspicious circumstances, Arnold becomes convinced that something is not right. What begins as everyday paranoia turns into a desperate escape in search of something that resembles, even slightly, freedom.
Glória e Liberdade
Director Letícia Simões
Brazil | 2025 | 1h13’
Synopsis: 2050. Brazil has not existed for a long time. The countries that once formed its North and Northeast regions celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Regency Revolts—popular uprisings that, after the departure of Dom Pedro I, dissolved national unity and gave rise to the Pau-Brasil continent. Azul, a young documentary filmmaker from the Republic of Bahia, travels through the four independent nations to investigate their origins, identities, and the reasons that made it impossible to keep Brazil united. On her journey, she meets leaders, shamans, hackers, and historians—and, ultimately, her own family. In the end, she must confront everything she has learned about revolution and freedom in the face of a new insurrection threatening to erupt within her own home.
Nimuendajú
Director Tania Anaya
Brazil | 2025 | 1h24’
Synopsis: The film tells the story of Curt Unckel, a social scientist who lived among Indigenous peoples for 40 years. Baptized in 1906 by the Guarani as Nimuendajú, he dedicated his life to studying and understanding different cultures, witnessing the persecution and expulsion of Indigenous communities from their lands.
Olívia e as Nuvens
Director Tomás Pichardo Espaillat
Dominican Republic | 2024 | 1h20’
Synopsis: Who has never been haunted by a love from the past? In this feature film, we follow the romantic mysteries of Olivia, Ramón, Bárbara, and Mauricio, who live together without truly understanding one another. With surreal elements, *Olivia & the Clouds* delves into the enduring power of the memory of love.
Papaya
Director Priscilla Kellen
Brazil | 2025 | 1h14’
Synopsis: In love with the idea of flying, a small papaya seed must keep moving to avoid taking root. Persevering, it discovers the power of its roots, which connect life through deep and mysterious paths, and sparks a great revolution, transforming its environment and fulfilling its dream in the most unexpected way.
Revoada
Director Ducca Rios
Brazil | 2025 | 1h21’
Synopsis: “Revoada – Steampunk Version” takes place in a semi-arid region of Northeastern Brazil following the invasion of the fearless cangaceiros’ camp by government troops known as the infamous “Volante.” Led by the villain Espingarda, the soldiers kill the great leader and his companion, Maria. On the opposite bank of the river is a subgroup led by the respected cangaceiro Lua Nova, who witnesses the massacre from afar and vows revenge, while also becoming a target of the violent Volante.
STUDENT COMPETITIVE SHOWCASE
Feature films invited by a specialized curator from Lanterna Mágica, to make up this exhibition, together with a debate and case study on the process of creation and/or production of the films.
Farewell
Director Ximena Álvarez Portilla
Escuela de Animación y Artes Digitales | México | 2025 | 6’45’’
Synopsis: After taking his own life, Sergio is transported into the void and realizes that he is now a ghost. From this new place, he watches his best friend, Adolfo, cry inconsolably upon finding his body. As was his habit, Sergio tries to get close to his friend, but an invisible barrier separates their worlds. Desperate to offer some comfort, Sergio will try with all his strength to break through the barrier in order to say goodbye.
Homi do Saco
Director Deborah Guatura de Paula
Faculdade Méliès | Brazil | 2025 | 4’17’’
Synopsis: Mimi finds herself in a difficult situation after being falsely accused and now feels she must explain what really happened on the fateful day when she raised her fists to protect everyone in kindergarten.
Jornada
Director Lara Cristina de Oliveira Sampaio
UFTPR | Brazil | 2025 | 1’08’’
Synopsis: A small mushroom moves forward on its journey.
Letting Go
Director Irene Cubells García
Centro Politecnico de Valencia | Spain | 2025 | 5’55’’
Synopsis: Ale leaves his life behind and arrives in a new city to study at university. A cloud of thoughts follows him, leading him to compare what he has with what he no longer has. In his daily routine of commuting on the subway, he eventually hits rock bottom, then tries to accept his thoughts until they no longer weigh him down. In short, learning to let go.
Maninho
Director Erik Cruz
Gobelins Paris | Brazil | 2025 | 3’30’’
Synopsis: Afraid of letting her older brother leave for university, the little sister refuses to sleep. They embark on a journey through memory and learn to cope with the distance from loved ones. They gain a little more time when his flight is delayed, but the bittersweet ending is inevitable.
Miss Biú
Director Gabriela Taulois
PUC Rio | Brazil | 2025 | 4’41’’
Synopsis: Miss Biu is a student animated short film about a healer who lives in a small town in northeastern Brazil. A woman narrates a story about her childhood memories and Miss Biu’s daily habits.
My Organs Lying on the Ground
Director Shinobu Soejima
Tokyo University of the Arts | Japan | 2025 | 11’
Synopsis: In a cave, he awakens. He has the appearance of a human being, but is nothing more than an empty puppet. As he comes into contact with insects, animals, grass, grains, and all the other things in the world around him, he absorbs vitality and gradually comes to life. As the boundaries between himself and others blur, he comes to realize the cycle of life and death.
Na Beira
Director Laila Borges
Escola Pública de Audiovisual da Vila das Artes | Brazil | 2025 | 4’06’’
Synopsis: Bonitinha, a young Pisces woman, wakes up every morning to the rhythm of her alarm clock, conditioned by the city’s frenetic lifestyle.
Never Steal From Baba Yaga
Director Chloe Serimontrikul
UT Dallas | USA | 2025 | 2’26’’
Synopsis: Have you heard of Baba Yaga? She is a witch who appears in many Slavic legends, acting in favor of those who are kind and generous and punishing those who oppose her. She has some distinctive traits in these stories—she travels in a giant mortar and pestle and lives in a hut with chicken legs… how did that happen? Well, when a greedy crow enters a suspicious cabin in the forest, he gets more than he bargained for. Perhaps that is where her iconic image began.
Page to Page
Director Colton Dillard
UT Dallas | USA | 2025 | 1’53’’
Synopsis: A writer is stuck while trying to create his next great story. Feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, he recalls the books he loved as a child. Those stories, full of imagination and color, always inspired him in some way. On this journey in search of creativity, the writer realizes that he needs to seek inspiration in the pages of the past in order to imagine the pages of the future.
Perdi um Pedaço Meu
Director Cassius Gaio Gomes de Senna
UFRJ | Brazil | 2025 | 2’34’’
Synopsis: It is a satire about the fear of losing one’s hair and the possible feelings this scenario may bring. The work is based on Rosalind Krauss’s reflections on video art and its narcissistic aspect, due to the extensive use of artists’ bodies as the main subject.
Skin Flick
Director Daniela Del Castello
Gobelins Paris | France | 2025 | 8’05’’
Synopsis: A former actress stars in the Devil’s cannibalistic snuff films in exchange for beautiful, sensual skin. When she lures a runaway bride into the studio to be consumed on camera, she develops feelings that will disrupt the Devil’s plans.
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